Why Use Companion Planting?

Companion Planting vegetables is as old as agriculture. Through the centuries, people have realized some vegetables actually aid others in their growth, help repel insects or act as a trap crop to encourage insects to congregate on them, the more easily to be dispatched.

But, it isn't only vegetables that aid in each other's growth, herbs are quite at home in a companion planting program. Many herbs invite beneficial insect pollinators or predators to the garden. The chemicals given off by certain herbs can aid in vegetable production, as well.

Whether you grow your vegetables in an in-ground garden or in containers, herbs can be interplanted to aid your production. The various herb plants work best interplanted with your vegetables. If you're a row-type gardener, plant your herbs every so often down the row. If your garden is more of a casual bed plan, just plant the herbs here and there in the bed. Container growers can either plant herbs in the containers with the vegetables or in separate containers and place them near and around the vegetable containers.

It has been shown that intermingling herbs and different vegetable plants rather than planting row-type gardens can help protect your plants from attack by harmful insects. Without a direct path from one plant of the same variety to another of the same variety and another and another.... down the row, insects have a harder time taking hold of one crop and destroying or damaging it if the same type of plants are not planted right next to each other.

What herbs are best?

Almost all the culinary herbs we use are beneficial as Companion Plants. The list of herbs which attract predators to your garden is long: dill, mint, yarrow, catmint, lavender, bee balm, marigold, tansy, coneflowers, basil, thyme, hyssop, marjoram, sage, caraway, fennel, angelica, butterfly flower and chives. Give fennel some room of its own to grow, however, as many plants do not do well planted too close to it. Although, my licorice grows right in and around the fennel in my herb bed.

Dill, hyssop, marigolds and thyme will lure cabbage moths from your cabbage and other brassica varieties such as broccoli, cauliflower, kale and Brussels sprouts. Thyme also repels whitefly. Catnip is good for controlling flea beetles, which also enjoy snacking on your brassicas.

To repel aphids, use chives, garlic, garlic chives and borage. Herbal, edible flowers of nasturtiums and calendula attract hover flies, whose larva eat aphids. Borage also repels tomato hornworms and helps control cutworms. Chives and garlic chives also help keep mildew from the plants near it, which is why they're often planted with roses.

To attract beneficial insects, such as bees and hover flies, which will help pollinate your crops, plant peppermint, rosemary, thyme, mints and sage. If you're worried about the mint taking over, just plant it in a big pot buried about halfway into the ground.

Summer savory enhances the flavor of green beans and helps repel bean beetles. Planting oregano with beans also adds to their vigor.

If you think you have root knot nematodes, plant marigolds, Tagetes erecta or T. patula, instead of your vegetable crop for a season. Turn or plow under the whole plant in the fall. This practice should take care of root knot nematodes for about 3 years.

How to Plant

There are a few practices that have been found to be useful when planting herbs to attract beneficial insects, whether they are predators or pollinators. Since it's the flowers on most herbs which attract the insects, try succession planting so you have flowers opening every few weeks.

If you plant a trap crop, be sure to deal with the insects either by pulling up the crops and destroying them or destroying the insects with an approved- organic, of course- insecticide. Otherwise, you'll just make the problem worse by setting up a nursery where your damaging insects will thrive.

It's best to have your herbs growing before your vegetables get too large, so the herbs can bring the predatory insects to the garden to keep harmful insects off your small plants. Pay attention to when the herbs should flower or are flowering when trying to bring in pollinators. You want the flowering herbs when the vegetable plants are blooming, too, so optimum fruit set is achieved. Succession planting really helps with this step.

Here is a Handy Companion Planting Chart
(Here is a printable PDF Version)

Whether you grow in a garden bed or containers, you can use herbs to help with your vegetable production. You'll have great results! And, remember, bringing beneficial insects into your garden will very much lessen the pesticides you'll have to use to keep your vegetable plants healthy.

QUOTE FOR THE MONTH

When a man is wrapped up in himself he makes a pretty small package. -John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900)